What happens in the next couple of weeks could determine what kind of country we're going to be.

What happens in the next couple of weeks could determine what kind of country we're going to be.

The relentless spate of breaking, bombshell news items over the past week has made it crystal clear that we are headed, in the very near future, to some form of impasse or breaking point in this country. Something is about to happen. It could be very good or it could be very bad, and how you feel about whether it is good or bad will depend entirely on how happy you may or may not be with the Trump presidency. I believe there is really only two ways that events can unfold from here. To put it bluntly, we are either watching the end of the Donald Trump presidency in real time right in front of our eyes, or instead, we are very likely watching the end of America as we know it.

When Trump recently, as reported by Reuters, refused to enforce sanctions against Russia that had been declared mandatory with an almost unanimous 517-5 vote in Congress, he crossed the latest in a seemingly endless series of lines that no American president should cross. The president of the United States cannot simply disregard the overwhelming will of Congress and the people of this country by refusing to implement repercussions on a hostile foreign power for their attack on our institutions and way of life. Unless, of course, he does and no one lifts a finger to stop him.

The recent debacle with the Devin Nunes memo, supposedly outlining corruption and abuses of FISA warrants by members of the intelligence community in some kind of nefarious “deep state” conspiracy against a wholly innocent Donald Trump, is a very vivid indication that the constitutional checks and balances we have been relying on to protect us from despotism are seriously breaking down under this president and his enablers’ constant warlike barrage on truth and reality. It looks that, in all likelihood, Nunes wrote this memo himself (with, quite possibly, help from the White House) with the sole purpose being to discredit the Mueller investigation. According to reporting from CNN, the FBI has released a statement insinuating that they believe the memo is not a truthful representation.

“As expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”

On Wednesday night, according to another report from CNN, Rep Adam Schiff (D-CA) declared that Nunes (R-CA) has made “material changes” to the memo since its release was voted on by the House Intelligence Committee and before it was read by the president or the White House. This is, quite simply, against the law, and would amount to a major scandal in any other administration or any any other time in American history, but since we now have to deal with six or seven new scandals every day, it barely registers a blip on the radar.

BREAKING: Discovered late tonight that Chairman Nunes made material changes to the memo he sent to White House – changes not approved by the Committee. White House therefore reviewing a document the Committee has not approved for release. pic.twitter.com/llhQK9L7l6

The latest news, according to CNN, is that there is every expectation that FBI Director Christopher Wray will resign if the memo is released. Wray is no Hillary-loving, leftist socialist. He was appointed to his position by Donald Trump.

Suddenly, we are in the unprecedented situation in this country of watching our current administration and one of the two major political parties going to war with their own FBI and intelligence services. This is not politics as usual. That the GOP is attempting to demonize the very people needed to investigate an attack on our democracy and protect us from future attacks while, in every possible instance, letting the people who mounted the attack on us wriggle off the hook should alarm every American.

On Wednesday it was reported by the Daily Beast that Russian Foreign Intelligence Chief Sergei Naryshkin, as well as two other high ranking Russian intelligence officers, recently visited the United States and met secretly with Trump administration officials. Why did this happen, and why were we not told about it? Particularly since existing sanctions forbid Naryshkin, who is one of the architects of the Russian attacks on the 2016 presidential election, from setting foot on American soil. Why was he allowed to come here, and what were his meetings, which happened just before the White House declined to enforce the Russian sanctions, concerning? We have a right to know. Yet our government hid this from us.

How much smoke does there need to be before we admit there is a fire?

How we actually found out about these secret meetings is that Russia told us. We found out from translations of Russian state media. Let that one bounce around your brain for a moment. Our government hid it from us, yet Russia told us the truth. Russia and Vladimir Putin seem to want us and the world to know that they have us by the short and curlies. It appears they enjoy taunting us with the fact that our president is doing their bidding.

We have come as far as we can possibly go down the road we have been traveling. Very soon, things will need to break one way or another. We can either be the America of our forefathers, the America of our aspirations, the one that that has freedom and opportunity for all, or we can be Trump’s America, the America that is willing to start attacking the very people who are tasked with defending us from harm. In the next couple of weeks, it should become very clear exactly which America we are going to be.